Japan
Renewed radiation fears at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant sent the Nikkei 0.60% lower on Monday. Shares of Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the nuclear plant, slumped 17% after confused reports about radiation levels inside one of the buildings. On Sunday Tokyo Electric Power said radiation in puddles in the turbine building of reactor two was 10m times higher than normal. The company later corrected the information to say it was 100,000 times higher.
Share Cast 28th March 2011 more >>
City Wire 28th March 2011 more >>
Workers were once again evacuated from the Fukushima nuclear power plant as radiation rose to extraordinarily high levels on Sunday. Levels of 1,000 millisieverts per hour were measured in surface water within the Fukushima Unit 2 reactor building. This means that a human being entering building 2 would be exposed to four times the annual limit of radiation within an hour. The Japanese government has raised the limit to 250 millisieverts per year for the workers who are attempting to bring the Fukushima nuclear emergency under control. The normal background level of exposure for a person not working in the nuclear industry might be 3 millisieverts per year.
World Socialist Web 28th Narch 2011 more >>
The company responsible for the Fukushima I power station evacuated it again yesterday after immense levels of radiation were detected in the cooling system of one reactor. At one point radiation of 1,000 milli-sieverts per hour a potentially lethal level said to be ten million times higher than normal was measured, although the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) later said that the reading was a mistake, which had not been double-checked because workers had then fled the building.
Times 28th March 2011 more >>
The Japanese government has attacked the operator of a crippled nuclear plant for “unacceptable” mistakes. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) had said radiation levels were 10m times higher than normal before correcting the figure to 100,000 times.
BBC 28th March 2011 more >>
Daily Mail 28th March 2011 more >>
Daily Star 28th March 2011 more >>
Channel 4 News 27th March 2011 more >>
Japan appeared resigned on Monday to a long fight to contain the world’s most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant.
Reuters 28th March 2011 more >>
Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and inadequate storage tanks for huge amounts of contaminated water, hindered emergency workers yesterday as they struggled to nudge Japan’s stricken nuclear complex back from the edge of disaster.
Scotsman 28th March 2011 more >>
Press & Journal 28th March 2011 more >>
The discovery of the highly radioactive water, even if the exact amount of radioactivity is unclear, is the latest blow to efforts to restore control at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Telegraph 27th March 2011 more >>
Fresh doubt has been cast on the handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis after officials admitted wildly overstating levels of radiation, prompting an evacuation of the nuclear site damaged by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said initial reports of a level 10m times higher than normal in parts of the No 2 reactor were inaccurate, although it could not say by how much.
Guardian 28th March 2011 more >>
Sky News 27th March 2011 more >>
At least 1000 anti-nuclear activists on Sunday marched through Tokyo as workers battled to stem the damage from a leaking atomic reactor. The Japan Congress Against A and H Bombs hold such marches every month but this month’s demonstration attracted a better turnout after they advertised the rally on social networking sites. A group of Greenpeace radiation experts have been analysing the area that surrounds the Fukushima nuclear plant. The environmental pressure group said Japanese officials have been too quick to underplay the disaster’s impact and the threat posed to public health.
Euro News 27th March 2011 more >>
Implications
Letter: Nuclear safety may not be that industry’s Achilles’ Heel – although currently the Japanese possibly have a different take on that. The real problem remains its other expenses. The Fukushima disaster will cost utility bill payers, insurance premium payers or taxpayers a huge sum; yet, however large, the figure is dwarfed by the cost of managing nuclear waste for its 150,000 life time.
Scotsman 28th March 2011 more >>
Nuclear Liability
National and international liability arrangements establish rules and allocate monies to deal with the consequences of a major disaster at a commercial nuclear power plant.
Nuclear Engineering International 27th March 2011 more >>
Electricity Market Reform
The introduction of a carbon tax in the Budget to penalise coal-fired power stations that emit greenhouse gases threatens to accelerate the closure of generating plant, potentially creating a serious energy supply gap in the middle of the decade. The electricity generating industry has warned the Treasury that it has gone too far, too fast by implementing a carbon price floor in last week’s Budget, claiming that the tax could also kill off plans by coal-fired power stations for futuristic and expensive carbon-capture schemes.
Times 28th March 2011 more >>
Wylfa
What caused most trouble was the tweet: “After Japan, #plaidconf will be able to reaffirm opposition to ALL nuclear power. #plaidcymru can settle the debate once and for all.” This, of course, is not Plaid policy, what with Ieuan Wyn Jones’ constituency being Anglesey and nuclear being quite popular there in terms of employment. Obviously not true, then? Er… not if you’re Shadow Economic Development Minister Darren Millar, who took it at its word and instantly issued a press release attacking Mr Jones for “actively campaigning for what would be a massive blow to his Anglesey constituents and have a negative impact on the economy of North Wales”. “I am appalled that Plaid would seek to use the disaster in Japan for political advantage… To imply that Wylfa could pose a similar risk to people in North Wales is a disgrace.”
Wales on Sunday 27th March 2011http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/columnists/2011/03/27/tweeter-runs-rings-round-the-plaid-party-faithful-91466-28410045/
ANTI-NUCLEAR campaigners will stage a protest against plans for a new Welsh power station, claiming the radiation leaks and other problems at Japan’s Fukushima plant proves the technology is unsafe. PAWB, or People Against Wylfa B, will hold its demonstration near the Menai Bridge on Anglesey, on Wednesday. PAWB spokesman Dylan Morgan said the island’s only two escape routes – the Menai and Britannia bridges – would quickly become congested in the event of a serious nuclear accident.
Western Mail 28th March 2011 more >>
Germany
An estimated quarter of a million people took to the streets in four German cities on Saturday to call for the closure of all nuclear power plants in the country. The demonstrations in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich were organised by a wide range of environmental groups and supported by the main opposition parties in parliament the Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the Left Party. The German federation of trade unions (DGB) also put its name to the list of sponsors and its chairman was the main speaker at the rally following the march in Berlin.
World Socialist Web 28th March 2011 more >>
Morning Star 27th March 2011 more >>
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition was defeated in its southwestern heartland and failed to win control of a second state as the anti-nuclear Greens vote surged to a record, forcing her to reassess energy policy. The Greens were poised to enter the regional governments in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate after state elections yesterday conducted in the shadow of the nuclear disaster in Japan. In Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Greens were set to lead their first state administration, ejecting Merkel’s Christian Democrats from power in Stuttgart after 58 years.
Bloomberg 27th March 2011 more >>
Telegraph 27th March 2011 more >>
Guardian 28th March 2011 more >>
Four nuclear power companies are preparing lawsuits against the German government in the wake of its decision to idle seven of the country’s 17 nuclear-power stations. Officials at the companies – Germany’s Eon, RWE and EnBW and Sweden’s Vattenfall – said no top-level decisions had been taken, but obligations to shareholders made suits “almost an imperative”.
FT 28th March 2011 more >>
Renewables
The UK renewable energy sector saw merger and acquisition deals worth £910m last year, around 11 per cent of all European green deals, a report from consultancy Pricewaterhouse-Coopers will show today. Between them, the UK and Germany account for a third of the activity in the EU, the report says. Although overall green deal values globally dropped by 32 per cent to $33bn (£20bn) in 2010, the volume of deals rose, as confidence returned to the sector and buyers and sellers came to market with more realistic expectations. And despite some regulatory uncertainty, the market is expected to remain strong throughout 2011, buoyed by a renewed environmentalism in the US and nuclear power groups’ increasing moves into other forms of green energy.
Independent 28th March 2011 more >>
